This Summer Help Keep Louisville Seniors Safe From Heat-Stroke
The ability to respond to summer heat can be a serious problem for seniors in Louisville. During the summer months, seniors are vulnerable to heat-related illnesses such as; hyperthermia, heat stroke, heat edema (swelling in your ankles and feet when you get hot), heat syncope (sudden dizziness after exercising in the heat), heat cramps, and heat exhaustion.
Experts at the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, want Louisville seniors to know the health-related factors that increase their risk. It could save their life. Those factors include:
- Age-related changes to the skin, such as poor blood circulation and inefficient sweat glands, heart, lung, and kidney diseases or any illness that causes weakness or fever
- High blood pressure or conditions that require changes in diet, such as salt-restricted diets
- Reduced sweating caused by medications. For example; diuretics, sedatives, tranquilizers, and certain heart and blood pressure drugs
- Taking several drugs for various conditions (It is important, however, to continue to take prescribed medication and discuss possible problems with a physician.)
- Being substantially overweight or underweight
- Drinking alcoholic beverages
- Being dehydrated
Learn how Brightstar Care Louisville helps keep seniors safe at home in the summer-CLICK HERE